Tt eSports announces Black FP gaming mouse

Tt eSports, Thermaltake's gaming peripherals division, has announced a new gaming mouse for the pro-gamer with a passion for security: the Black FP, with integrated fingerprint sensor.

Common on corporate laptops and having made their way into smartphones over the last few years, fingerprint sensors are still a rarity on desktops. Although some keyboards include them built-in, and external USB fingerprint sensors are readily available, Tt eSports reckons that the logical place for the sensor is on the side of the mouse - and further that gamers, rather than high-security corporate users, are likely to want such a feature.

The Black FP mouse comes with a fingerprint sensor, supporting the Fido Alliance Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) standard, on the left-hand wall. Coupled with bundled security software and a Chrome extension, the Black FP can be used to automatically log in to Windows as well as websites, storing all plaintext passwords and usernames in an AES-256 encrypted vault unlocked by the user's fingerprint - a concern, perhaps, given that fingerprints are notoriously easy to duplicate, even from photographs.

The sensor itself is a Synaptics 'Iron Veil,' one of a new range of fingerprint scanners which is capable of recognising a partial print in 0.2 seconds. Elsewhere, the mouse uses an Avago 9500 optical sensor with adjustable resolution to 5,700 dots per inch (DPI), Omron switches, and a total of seven buttons and 35 macros across five profiles.

UK pricing and availability for the Black FP have yet to be confirmed, with Thermaltake setting a US recommended retail price of $59.99 (around £49 excluding taxes.) More information is available on the official website.